Le Quatorze

Bastille Day was so much fun! I got to sleep in late and then go get lunch with 3 of my friends, which was quite nice. Then we headed over to the artsy district of town to see a musical called I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change ("Je t'aime, tu es parfait, change") which, if you haven't been lucky enough to ever see it, is absolutely hysterical. Even in French. Each song is a little vignette about an aspect of relationships between men and women: the awkward first date, marriage, having kids...everything. Basically about how we change ourselves to be with someone, how that someone changes us. This idea is summed up by the last line of the show (I've never seen it in English so this is my translation): "Try to find some who you love, who is, in your opinion, perfect; then spend the rest of your life trying to change them." Very very funny. All 4 actors were incredible. I'm so glad I went!

After the show I had my 3 friends over for dinner (Corine was out for the night so she told me I could have people over to eat), and after we had finished it was time to go try to find a place to sit on the riverbank to watch the fireworks. We had to search a little but we ended up with a pretty good spot. The show was incredible...the way you could see all the fireworks reflected in the waters of the Rhone river. Very pretty.

Once the fireworks were over we got in the huge crowd trying to get back into the city walls. Total nightmare. Took us probably 20-30 minutes just to get back inside. Once we were there we had some wine and some dessert on the Place Crillon. I tell you, the whole city of Avignon was out last night celebrating. It was fun to see and to be a part of. But I'll admit I did get home pretty late...thankfully I took a taxi with some of the other girls. It was a little too rowdy out last night to walk home alone.

Anyhow, classes today were fine with one exception: my history class, which meets in the mornings, had to spend 2 hours this afternoon watching a movie about the war in Algeria during the 50s. The movie was made right after the war, and it was largely very dull. Some parts were sort of exciting. Sort of. But mostly boring. After we got done with that little adventure, I treated myself to a search for new black sandals, as mine are near falling apart. Well, it was my lucky day because I found a new pair for FIVE EURO. Which is like $7-8. Which is awesome. And they are very cute and pretty comfy. So that made up for the boring movie.

When I got home I just sat in front of my fan for about an hour. Then I got up to take a shower. Sweating all day does not tend to make one smell like a bed of roses. But right after that was dinner, which was particularly delicious tonight, for whatever reason. There was ratatouille, salad, cheese, bread with oil and balsamic, melon, fromage blanc/marscapone/cocoa powder amazingness, and this candy I have never seen before called "Tete de Negre" which, despite its...unique name (yes, it means just what you think) was delicious. A big piece of oeuf blanc--which is very slightly akin to a marshmallow--covered in dark chocolate. Oh so good. So I ate well tonight. And since I don't have classes on Friday, I really have nothing to do. It's nice, after such a hectic week. So I'm just going to take it easy, figure out which plays to see tomorrow. Then Saturday is our excursion to Arles...more to follow on that one. But that's all for now!

Love and miss you all,
Natalie